Dan Harden

Between a yoga studio and a pool hall in downtown San Jose sits a small office where Dan Harden quietly crafts some of the world's smartest products. Harden, a Frog Design veteran who has collaborated with Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs, has made his 36-person shop the go-to firm behind such landmark creations as Nike's FuelBand and Google's Chromecast device. Here's how it shaped 2013's award-winning Livescribe 3 Smartpen, which links with an iPhone or iPad to digitize handwritten notes.

"Livescribe came to us with a mess: a circuit board with a battery, an optical component, a pen cartridge, a Bluetooth antenna with a USB connector for recharging. They said, 'We also want a nub on the end for touch-screen [interactions],' says Harden. "We got rid of the display and removed ­evidence of a battery or circuit board. We didn't want to overburden the end user with a lot of techno-design."